Totem Films has launched a new documentary label, Totem Doc, and will present its inaugural lineup of four female-driven projects at Cannes Film Market next week. Screen Daily confirmed the news.

The Paris-based company is making its first move into in-house production with an adaptation of “The Female Gaze,” adapted from Franco-American writer and critic Iris Brey’s original work, which “sparked controversy in France for the way it explores how women have been objectified on the big screen throughout the history of cinema, and how this perspective can be shifted to a female gaze.”

Production and development on the project “will be undertaken under the banner of Totem Atelier, the company’s subsidiary creative arm aimed at exploring new stories around gender norms and identity,” reports Screen Daily.

Also included in the lineup is Heather Kessinger’s ‘The Most Fearless,” which follows 21-year-old Bangladeshi Nasima Akhter “on her quest to become a high-level competitive surfer against a backdrop of poverty and prejudice.” Still in post-production are “Aude Pépin’s ‘A La Vie’ (working title), which follows militant-feminist midwife Chantal Birman as she does rounds in Paris suburbs, and Alice Diop’s ‘WE,’ which uses Paris’ RER B suburban train line as way to explore the cultural diversity of French society.”

Regarding the label’s launch, Totem Films co-chiefs Bérénice Vincent, Agathe Valentin and Laure Parleani said, “We want to pursue the work we started on fiction with documentaries that are a strong mirror of today’s battles for new perspectives and representation.” The team emphasized that their films “confront stereotypes and depict people we think should be our new heroes of today.”

Recent entries in Totem’s fiction catalog include Zeina Durra’s Andrea Riseborough-starrer “Luxor” and Sofía Quirós Ubeda’s Caribbean-set coming of age drama “Land of Ashes.”

Set to take place June 22 to June 26, the Cannes Film Market is digital this year due to COVID-19.